Oshawott Line/BW
The Oshawott line is available from the box sent to the player's house in Nuvema Town. Even with the initial backlash against it, Oshawott is a popular starter pick in Unova nuzlockes. Its movepool has a fair mix of physical and special attacks, albeit more focused on the physical side for most of the adventure, and its stats are balanced, which helps with its survivability. Supplemented with the proper teammates that can cover its weaknesses, mostly ascribed to Electric-types and Elesa in particular, the Oshawott line can be a solid member in any nuzlocker's team; despite the popularity of the Snivy line and its late game capabilities with Coil setups, Oshawott remains, by far and at large, the most usable and reliable of the Unova starters. Important Matchups * Bianca (Nuvema Town): Spam Tackle. Oshawott can mix in Tail Whip to reduce Defense if needed, but the AI should let it win if it just keeps dealing damage without using any status moves. * Cheren (Nuvema Town): Rinse and repeat, more Tackle spam. Status moves can be used, but they should not be needed. * N (Accumula Town): Oshawott should have already learned its first STAB move, Water Gun. Since Water Gun is a special move, its power will not be lowered by Purrloin's Growl, and it should deal with N's Pokémon swiftly. * Bianca (Route 2): Water Gun alone can take care of both Lillipup and Tepig, but watch out for the Leer + Tackle combo Lillipup might pull on Oshawott; bring a teammate here in case a switch-out is needed to reset the stat drops. * Cheren (Striaton City): Even if Oshawott is higher levelled, it should still watch out for Snivy's super effective STAB Vine Whip and Purrloin's possible Assist-induced Vine Whip. Thankfully, Purrloin is frail enough that Oshawott's STAB Water Gun can handle it fine, and even outdamages Vine Whip in the event Purrloin actually uses it. On the other hand, another Pokémon should deal with Snivy unless Oshawott can tank multiple Vine Whips, and it will usually only take one; plus, Oshawott's Tackle does not damage Snivy much at this point. * Gym #1 - Cilan (Striaton City, Grass-type): Oshawott needs to definitely be overlevelled to defeat Cilan safely, unless it has better options in this fight (Dreamyard Pansear comes to mind). Work Up and Bite on Lillipup can be dangerous, so spamming Water Gun is the best possible course of action. As for the Pansage, do not use Oshawott unless out of options. STAB Vine Whip will hurt, especially if it manages to get a boost from Work Up. * Cheren (Route 3): Purrloin now gets access to Sand-Attack, and Snivy knows Growth. Water Gun spam against Purrloin and a better counter for Snivy still works, but Oshawott may have to deal with accuracy drop hax (if Purrloin outspeeds Oshawott and gets Sand-Attacks off). Also, a +1 Snivy's Vine Whip is not something Oshawott should take; it can kill from full health. Use something else against Cheren's starter. * N (Nacrene City): It is not necessary for Oshawott to be evolved prior to this battle, but it can help. Barring unlucky critical hits, Pidove can be dealt with STAB Water-type moves, but watch out for the Quick Attack sniping when Oshawott's health is in the red, especially since Pidove's ability is Super Luck. The same can be said for Timburr, but its threat instead is Bide, which can deal double the damage Oshawott has dealt. Tympole resists Oshawott's STAB, so using Tackle on it is okay, but it is advised to have other teammates deal with this Pokémon, as it can make a dent in Oshawott's defenses with Round. It should also be noted that Tympole has access to Supersonic, which can cause problems with self-inflicted confusion damage. * Gym #2 - Lenora (Nacrene City, Normal-type): An evolved Dewott and some luck are both needed at this point. In the outer area of Pinwheel Forest, the Rock Smash TM is available, which will help. Despite the base 40 attack, Rock Smash can be used to deal super effective damage to both Herdier and Watchog, with a chance to lower Defense; this will help increase damage output of later attacks, including Dewott's STAB Razor Shell attack, which is more powerful than Rock Smash overall. But Lenora's Herdier does have Intimidate (lowers Attack), Bite (can flinch Dewott to death), and STAB Retaliate. Even if its Retaliate lacks the double damage effect, it will hurt a lot, not to speak of Take Down, which can actually take down a full health Dewott with lower-than-average Defense with critical hits. Watchog may be frailer than Herdier, but after Herdier faints, Watchog's STAB Retaliate can kill almost anything; only a critical hit will off Dewott, but the damage even without a crit will be significant. Watchog also has access to Hypnosis, which will render Oshawott vulnerable for 2-3 turns. Two decent strategies would be to either lower Defense of Lenora's Pokémon with one or two Rock Smashes before hitting them with Razor Shell or just keep hitting them with Razor Shell and try to get lucky with critical hits. If possible, Dewott should be swapped out to bulkier team members (or special attackers) to deal with Herdier and its Intimidate. * Gym #3 - Burgh (Castelia City, Bug-type): Dewott will not get access to any good coverage moves for every member in Burgh's team, except Dwebble. STAB Razor Shell can take care of Whirlipede and Dwebble, the latter being easier to handle since it is part Rock-type; equip the Eviolite here if possible, since Dewott may need extra durability against Whirlipede, which is very bulky and can poison with Poison Tail. However, Leavanny's STAB Razor Leaf is unthinkable for Dewott to handle, Eviolite or not; even if Dewott can take one (which is likely), its moves do not do much of anything to Leavanny and it is a high critical hit ratio move, which should say a lot about how dangerous the matchup is. * Bianca (Route 4): Dewott will easily breeze through the battle against Pignite, and can also take on Munna. Pansage is not ideal, but an Eviolite Dewott is more than adequate to tank its Vine Whips; just do not push it and heal if needed, or use a Grass buster instead, because Pansage also has Leech Seed and it can be a very annoying move. Herdier makes the matchup harder with Intimidate; however, if Dewott is already past Water Pulse level, it can shrug off its Intimidate and hit it back for more damage than it deals, as Bianca has no access to Eviolites. * Cheren (Route 4): Pidove and Panpour should be very easy. The Eviolite will come in really handy against Liepard, which can otherwise deal a good amount of damage even with non-boosted Pursuit. Servine is not Dewott's job; leave it to someone else. * N (Nimbasa City): Half his team, including his lead, is weak to Water; Dewott should know what to do. Scraggy is likely to go down to two Water Pulses or Razor Shells, or Dewott can even Revenge it, but mind its Swagger, as Dewott packs a punch and will hurt itself a lot if confusion kicks in. Make sure to heal the status whenever possible. The Attack boosts, however, can come in very handy against Sigilyph; it is very strong, but an Eviolite Dewott can tank two or three hits from it starting at full health, and retaliate with Razor Shell or Return, which are natural 3HKOs and will get the job done in fewer hits if Swagger has been used on Dewott before. * Gym #4 - Elesa (Nimbasa City, Electric-type): Do not use Dewott in this gym. Dig can at best two-shot Zebstrika, which will kill Dewott in two hits (assuming Eviolite) and has an advantage because it is fast, and the two Emolga are immune to it and will chip away half of its health with Volt Switch. * Cheren (Route 5): Pidove is now a Tranquill. However, not much has changed since its evolution, except it may take longer to defeat due to having Roost. Dewott can still take down three quarters of his team without problems, and only needs to back off when Cheren's Servine is on the battlefield. * Gym #5 - Clay (Driftveil City, Ground-type): Dewott can do a good amount of work in this gym with the Eviolite attached. Krokorok cannot deal much damage at all, but is faster and has Swagger, which will make a considerable dent in Dewott's HP if it hits itself in confusion; if confusion can be healed somehow, Dewott should be okay, but do not give it a Persim Berry as this means it will have to give up the Eviolite boost, which will make it impossible to fight Excadrill. Whenever Dewott manages to hit, at any rate, Water Pulse will OHKO Krokorok (but not Razor Shell, due to Intimidate). Palpitoad is just really annoying; Muddy Water should not lower Dewott's accuracy if it it is used, as this will become very problematic against his ace otherwise. If the accuracy drop happens, Dewott needs to remove it before Excadrill comes out. Carrying some X Accuracy is not a bad idea. Lastly, Excadrill is very dangerous for basically anything. An Eviolite Dewott can fight it, but needs to be at full health to have good chances; Bulldoze is a 3HKO without any Hone Claws, meaning that Dewott will die to one regular and one critical hit, or sometimes a critical from +1 Hone Claws, depending on its stats. Remember that Excadrill is faster, and Razor Shell is a 2HKO at best; same for Water Pulse, which is even less likely to net the 2HKO. Rock Slide can also trigger flinching, which makes Dewott's job harder. Play very carefully here. * Bianca (Route 6): If Dewott still has Water Pulse, or maybe Revenge, defeating Herdier should not be a big problem. However, if it does use Revenge, it will be hurt in the process; give it the Eviolite, so that the damage may be lessened. Pignite is a breeze. Pansage has Seed Bomb now, which Dewott does not really want to take; there should be better counters on the team by now. As for Musharna, it is very strong and will annoy Dewott with Hypnosis; an Eviolite Dewott can face it and potentially get the upper hand eventually, but it will probably need to heal once or twice, or switch out if the sleep ailment lasts for too long. * N (Chargestone Cave): Boldore should be easy as pie, and Ferroseed does not have any Grass STAB, which means Dewott is not afraid of it. Gyro Ball will not do much with the resistance and Dewott's not so high Speed, either. Dewott must stay away from Joltik because Electroweb will hurt, and make sure Dewott is at least at half health if it needs to fight Klink; Klink has Charge Beam, but Dewott can take one with the Eviolite, and Revenge will score a clean OHKO. * Gym #6 - Skyla (Mistralton City, Flying-type): Both Eviolite Dewott and Samurott work well here. Swoobat and Unfezant are not terrible enemies for either of them, and even Acrobatics does not hurt a lot coming from Swoobat's measly base Attack. Unfezant may be annoying with the Air Slash flinch chance, but its Special Attack is too low for it to be dangerous. Still, bring healing items in case they are needed. Swanna is the discriminant: an Eviolite Dewott may take its hits well enough, but will not deal a lot of damage back to it, unless it packs Return; even then, healing up will be needed and the Air Slash flinches may put Dewott in a pinch eventually. It is better to have an already evolved Samurott, if it is the best possible answer on the team to Skyla's Swanna. * Cheren (Twist Mountain): As Samurott should have evolved by now, nothing much will mean trouble to it. Liepard is not that strong, Samurott resist Simipour's only good move (which is Scald), and Unfezant is only armed with Air Slash for damage, which will also not deal a lot; in the latter case, however, be wary of critical hits, because it has both Super Luck and is holding a Scope Lens, which makes up for a combined 25% critical hit rate. This will only be a problem below half health, though; Air Slash is fairly weak. Servine has Leaf Blade, which deals about half to Samurott; at this point, X-Scissor is available, which means Servine can be 2HKOed with it, but in the event of a Samurott with lower-than-average Defense Leaf Blade may actually kill if it crits. Even though Samurott is technically capable of winning, a better suited Pokémon should be used, if available. * Gym #7 - Brycen (Icirrus City, Ice-type): Return is more than sufficient against Vanillish and Cryogonal. Do not use Revenge, as this will leave them the opportunity to set up Acid Armor and Reflect respectively, though in Cryogonal's case, it might not matter; it is faster than Samurott. However frail Cryogonal is, Return will most likely be a 2HKO just barely, unless Samurott's Attack is well above average. Use a bit more caution with Beartic; it has Swagger and Slash, but it is also slower than Samurott. As its defensive stats are equal, Samurott can simply rely on its strongest move for this fight, which is probably Surf unless or until Swagger hits, in which case the best option is healing the confusion status and then KOing with Samurott's strongest physical move. * Bianca (Route 8): Two Surf hits should make do against Stoutland, and Samurott has enough bulk to withstand even one Work Up-boosted hit of its own. Emboar is also easy pickings. Musharna is still bulky, but the X-Scissor TM - or Megahorn, if Samurott has it - make its defeat much easier. Samurott must leave Simisage alone; aside from outspeeding Samurott and killing it with a critical Seed Bomb (which deals up to about 70% normally), it cannot be OHKOed without Megahorn, and Megahorn has imperfect accuracy. * Gym #8 - Iris/Drayden (Opelucid City, Dragon-type): Blizzard spam, ahoy! Fraxure cannot take a single one, even better if Samurott has a Wide Lens to boost the otherwise poor accuracy of the move. Druddigon can take a Blizzard, but its moves are at best 4HKOs against Samurott. Said poor accuracy, however, is the problem against Haxorus: it can dish out massive amounts of pain with Slash and Dragon Tail, and it will most likely Dragon Dance first. It is faster than Samurott even in its natural state. Again, Blizzard may or may not OHKO it, but most of the time it will not, as Samurott needs to have a high Special Attack IV and/or EV investment to nail it for sure; in most cases, it will not (assuming even levels), and Samurott will be in danger if it does not or if it misses. Strategies to work around this fight largely boil down to a proper usage of X Accuracy and/or Substitute. It is wise to pick up the Substitute TM from Professor Juniper before this battle; attempt to put up a Substitute against Fraxure or Druddigon before they can Dragon Tail Samurott out of the battlefield, and then spend the X Accuracy if Samurott wants to play on the safe side, or spam Blizzard with fingers crossed that it always connects. Remember that Samurott will need to keep its health as high as possible, and have the Substitute up at all times, in order to not lose the accuracy boost from the Dragon Tail switch. In a pinch, Samurott can take a critical Slash at up to +2 Attack from Haxorus, but Dragon Tail can kill from +1 onwards, which is part of why Substitute does well in this gym. * Cheren (Route 10): Unfezant, Simipour and Liepard are about as easy as they have always been; Samurott's Blizzard, X-Scissor and Surf respectively take care of them. In an equally very usual manner, fighting Serperior is a terrible idea for Samurott. * Elite Four Shauntal (Pokémon League, Ghost-type): Cofagrigus has Grass Knot and Jellicent has Energy Ball, so it is better to stay away from them unless nothing on the team counters them better than Samurott; it can take a hit or two from them, but weakening them is going to be painful, especially since Jellicent has Cursed Body and will resist most, if not all, of Samurott's good moves. With the Mystic Water, Surf can 2HKO Cofagrigus, if need be. Golurk and Chandelure are much better, Samurott's best Water move takes care of them; if Samurott has some Speed investment, the fight against Chandelure will be completely risk-free, though otherwise Chandelure will have a chance (but not a certainty) of OHKOing Samurott from full health with a critical Shadow Ball. * Elite Four Marshal (Pokémon League, Fighting-type): Samurott's physical bulk comes in very handy here, as well as its lack of moves that are likely to trigger the enemy's Guts. Throh should be easy, even though it will damage Samurott some in the process; Mienshao's Jump Kick is strong, but Samurott could hypothetically gamble with Protect and hope that it hits itself, making its downfall swifter. If this succeeds, Samurott can then KO it with just about any non-resisted move. Sawk and Conkeldurr are the ones whose hits are the strongest, but the AI will most likely make them resort to Grass Knot, which actually does laughable damage with their measly Special Attack; whittle them down with patience. * Elite Four Grimsley (Pokémon League, Dark-type): Spam Surf or Waterfall until they drop, paying attention to Samurott's HP levels against Liepard and Krookodile, respectively due to potential Night Slash crits and general massive output power of Earthquake. Revenge is not a bad idea against Bisharp, but it will have Samurott take a hit from it first; then again, there is no way to OHKO it with Water STAB, which means Samurott would need to tank one of Bisharp's moves either way. If going for Revenge, keep in mind that a critical Night Slash can chip away a quantity of Samurott's HP that is close to 80%. * Elite Four Caitlin (Pokémon League, Psychic-type): Reuniclus has Energy Ball and Thunder, and easily beats Samurott. Megahorn, however, will be sufficient to take down Musharna, as it will likely use Charge Beam, but not have much time to exploit the Special Attack boost even if it does happen. It is worth noting that Megahorn's accuracy is imperfect, and this time, X-Scissor cannot net the 2HKO, which means there is some risk involved in this matchup. Gothitelle is, once again, impossible for Samurott, due to Thunderbolt; Samurott can take one, unless it is a critical hit, but can only 2HKO with Megahorn, reproposing the same issues as the fight against Musharna, cranked up to eleven due to Gothitelle's Calm Mind. Sigilyph is easily manageable with either good Water STAB or Blizzard. * Reshiram/Zekrom (N's Castle): No to Zekrom, it has Fusion Bolt and it is way too strong. Reshiram is much easier to handle, thanks to Samurott's resistance to Fire; even off its majestic Special Attack, DragonBreath can only 3HKO. Nevertheless, healing may be needed while Surf or Waterfall is spammed against the legendary; this will take patience, as Reshiram's DragonBreath is stronger than them. * N (N's Castle): Both Zekrom and Reshiram are a bad idea; the reason for Zekrom is obvious, while for Reshiram, the problem is Hyper Beam and its Special Attack stat, which is no match for Samurott's average Special Defense. A Hyper Beam will not kill, but can chip away most of Samurott's health, and Samurott can at best 3HKO back. On the plus side, there is not much else on N's team that Samurott is afraid of. While Klinklang does have Thunderbolt, its Special Attack is not very high, netting a mere 3HKO (but close to a 2HKO) when Samurott can beat it with two Surfs; still, Klinklang is faster, and Samurott may need to be healed some. Better options are likely available, but Samurott can work in a pinch. Zoroark's Focus Blast may look frightening, but not more than Thunderbolt in practice, and it also goes down to two Surfs. Carracosta can be sent flying with Grass Knot after tanking a Stone Edge from it, but critical hits are something to watch for if Samurott's health is low. Aqua Jet is the best move to use against Archeops: a critical Acrobatics will kill Samurott from full health, and Samurott is unlikely to have much HP available at this point; a single Aqua Jet, instead, is essentially certain to bring Archeops down to Defeatist range, halving its otherwise really high attacking power. However, Samurott will need to hold the Mystic Water to actually get Archeops down past half health with a single Aqua Jet, unless entry hazards have been put up by a teammate previously. Lastly, Vanilluxe is a piece of cake. Or better said, a scoop of ice cream. * Ghetsis (N's Castle): If Samurott is lucky, it can profit of Cofagrigus to get a Swords Dance or two off, providing that Shadow Ball does not cause its Special Defense to drop; healing items will be needed for the many Toxic turns to pass. Cofagrigus generally uses Protect right after Toxic, making it predictable; those turns should be profited of to Swords Dance, getting Samurott up to +4 in Attack or, preferably, +6. If Samurott manages at least two Swords Dances, and has Waterfall in its roster, it can outspeed and OHKO everything on Ghetsis' team except Hydreigon; the latter needs to be avoided due to high Special Attack. Samurott can Blizzard it if there are no other options, but otherwise, Samurott's Special Defense is not enough to suffer a crit, though it will handle a non-critical STAB Dragon Pulse if it comes to it; on the other hand, a single Blizzard will not OHKO Hydreigon either. Without enough Swords Dance support, Bouffalant and Eelektross become unfeasible, as they both have Wild Charge. Seismitoad is not an issue either way; Bisharp is tricky because of Metal Burst, but if Samurott still has Revenge, it can circumvent that move thanks to Revenge's negative priority, which is lower than Metal Burst's zero priority. This does mean Samurott needs enough HP to take one of Bisharp's hits first, though, not considering that the difference in movesets needed in the Ghetsis fight compared to the previous one will make Samurott only useful either against N or his father, not both. * Post-Game: Samurott remains a good Pokémon throughout the rest of the game. It should still be used logically and not sent against anything that previously had Grass or Electric coverage, because chances are that the coverage is not gone, and it may even have gotten worse. With common sense, keeping Samurott alive will not be hard. Moves Oshawott starts with Tackle and Tail Whip. At level 7, it learns Water Gun, good early STAB which will prove useful for a while. Water Sport and Focus Energy, coming at levels 11 and 13 respectively, will not be very necessary at all. At level 17 there is the first moveset checkpoint, when it gets Razor Shell as well as its first evolution. Razor Shell is an incredibly powerful move, especially for this point in the game, and Samurott is highly unlikely to ever need any other Water STAB until Surf. At level 20, Dewott learns Fury Cutter, which however it probably will not be using much due to it being mostly for Grass-types, and Dewott should not be fighting them anyways. Water Pulse comes at level 25 but, unless Dewott is Modest or has another +Special Attack nature and terrible Attack IVs, Samurott is highly unlikely to want it in place of Razor Shell; it can keep both moves, though. At level 28, it gets Revenge, a bit risky due to the negative priority, but useful nevertheless due to its type and the Oshawott line's remarkable bulk. Aqua Jet is a valid option to replace Dewott's weakest Water move with (if it has more than one); it will be learned at level 33 and it supplies a handy priority STAB to compensate for Dewott's slowness. Encore, at level 36, should just be ignored. After evolving, the earliest accessible move is Megahorn, available from the Move Reminder in Mistralton City, though risky in the long run due to its accuracy, unless Samurott can get the Wide Lens from the Battle Subway. Samurott then gets Aqua Tail at level 45; it is better than Razor Shell, but has lower accuracy and power than Surf, so Surf will generally be Samurott's go-to Water STAB. If Samurott has a Wide Lens, it will boost Aqua Tail's accuracy to 99%. At level 50 comes Retaliate, which is the apotheosis of uselessness, and then Swords Dance at 57, which goes very well together with Aqua Jet but is otherwise best avoided, due to the low base Speed. Hydro Pump will be available at level 62 if Samurott gets that far, but Surf and Waterfall from their respective HMs are much better options, depending on how physically or specially inclined Samurott is. The Oshawott line also benefits greatly from TMs. Unfortunately some of the more useful TMs like Ice Beam will not be available until the postgame, but there is a number of good options to choose from nevertheless: Return, which is at best neutral, but can deal great damage; X-Scissor, a weaker but more accurate version of Megahorn; Aerial Ace, an okay move to cover for weak Grass-types; Grass Knot, which can help against some Water-types and certain watery fossil Pokémon if Samurott is lacking better moves to counter them; and lastly, Dig, which can cover the Electric weakness but takes two turns to execute, is useful in various parts of the game. Still, do not push this Pokémon in battles that it should not be fighting. Recommended moveset: Surf / Waterfall, X-Scissor / Megahorn, and any two between Swords Dance / Aqua Jet / Revenge / Blizzard Recommended Teammates * Grass-types: The Unova region has a plethora of Grass-types to offer, covering many roles. Samurott's two weaknesses are very well covered by them; Grass-types that have good coverage should be preferred, since they can deal with their fellow Grass-type cousins better. ** Good Pokémon that fit this description include, among others: Simisage, Leavanny, Whimsicott, Lilligant, Sawsbuck, Ferrothorn * Fast hitters: Speed may be mission-critical for some Pokémon; Archeops is one of the enemies that are much more easily taken down by a glass cannon than a tank, and Samurott is not a glass cannon. Having a fast hitter on the team is advised. ** Good Pokémon that fit this description include, among others: Zebstrika, Scolipede, Whimsicott, Archeops, Cinccino, Galvantula, Cryogonal, Mienshao, Durant Other Oshawott's stats Dewott's stats Samurott's stats * What Nature do I want? Any nature will work well with this line. One of the best options is possibly a Speed-lowering one, since Samurott will not be expected to outspeed much of anything, and it could always use more attacking power and/or more bulk. Brave and Quiet are both great, but Relaxed and Sassy can be good too. Neutral natures also work. A nature that reduces one of the offensive stats, however, may warrant tweaking the suggested moveset slightly, to make it a better fit for Samurott's stats. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? Dewott should be evolved by the time Lenora is fought, as she will probably give the team a hard time otherwise. It should then become a Samurott somewhere around Mistralton City, before fighting Skyla, or shortly after. * How good is the Oshawott line in a Nuzlocke? Very good, much like many other Water-types, but perhaps even more so due to its diverse movepool and TM capabilities (especially as Samurott). Combined with balanced stats, it is a solid choice as both a starter and a Water-type Pokémon; it also benefits from having a much lesser intensive Water competition in Unova than it would in many other regions. * Weaknesses: Grass, Electric * Resistances: Steel, Fire, Water, Ice * Immunities: None * Neutralities: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost, Psychic, Dragon, Dark Category:Black/White Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses